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How Much Is Your Local Tax? 


OW much of the taxes paid this year went to 
the State? How much went to your local, 
county, school, bridge, and other purposes? 


We all know that of the whole tax paid on every 
$100 of assessed property last year only 40 cents went 
to pay for the things for which the legislature voted 
appropriations. All the rest went for county, town, 
city, road, bridge, and other purposes that have no 
connection with State affairs. 

Of course the amount of our taxes that go to 
the State should be kept, like other taxes, as small 
as possible while making the State government 
efficient. But the bulk of our taxes is not due to 
State appropriations, but to assessments made for 
our local purposes. 


Illustrations 


N one Illinois czty in 1920 the tax rate was $7.78 2-3 
per $100 assessed valuation. Of this $7.78, 
all State purposes for which the General Assembly 
made appropriations took up 40 cents, the cownty 
tax was 50 cents, the town tax 11 cents, the city tax 
$2.25, the school tax $2.66 2-3, that for roads and 
bridges 66 cents, for sanitarium 20 cents, for the 
sanitary district, $1.00. The State tax was 5 per 
cent of the whole $7.78. Local taxes were 95 per cent. 
Another case, this time a small town: The 
1920 tax on every $100 assessed valuation was $9.15. 
Here again 40 cents of the whole amount went to 
meet all purposes for which the legislature made 
appropriations; that is, all State expenses. The 
rest went as follows: 26 cents for township, $1.33 
for village, 89 cents for city bonds, 50 cents for county, 
$2.65 for grade school, and the rest for miscellaneous 
purposes. 


Another case: A city of about 18,000. The 
total tax on every $100 assessed valuation was $5.67 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN 


IssuED WEEKLY 
Vol. XVIII APRIL 11, 1921 No. 32 


Aidhaidge as second-class matter, December 11, 1912, at the post-office at Urbana, 
Illinois, under the act of August 24,1912. Acceptance for mailing at the special 


rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized 
July 31, 1918.) 


PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA 


in 1920. In this case, again, only 40 cents of this 
went to meet all the expenses imposed by the legis- 
lature, while $5.27 went for local purposes. 


In another city of about 12,000, in 1920, $6.53 
was collected on every $100 of assessed valuation. 
Of this amount 40 cents was for State appropriations 
and $6.13 for local purposes. 


It is clear that the real burden of taxation is 
mot the State tax. Even if it were twice its present 
rate, the amount which each $100 would pay would 
be small compared with other taxes. 


What Becomes of the Proceeds of 
the State Tax? 


F the 40 cents received by the State on every 

$100, 6 2-3 cents went to the University of Illinois 
mill tax fund. For 1919 and 1920 the State tax 
rate was 40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, 
divided as follows: General State expenses, 
16 1-3 cents; school, 141-2 cents; University, 
6 2-3 cents; waterway, 2 1-2 cents; total, 40 cents. 


Of the amount paid per $100 in the first city 
mentioned above, nine-tenths of 1 per cent went to 
the University; in the second, seven-tenths of 
1 per cent; in the third, about 1 1-4 per cent; and 
in the fourth a shade over 1 per cent. 


How Small It Is 


ONSIDERED as a lump sum, the proposed 
appropriation to the University of Illinois is 
large; but 


(1) Even at the low price of today, it would 
take less than two ears of corn per bushel of the 1920 
crop. 


(2) The number of cigars smoked in Illinois 
averages 80 per head of population per year. If for 
each person the price of 11 of the 80 cigars were given 
to the University, it would provide $380,000 more 
than the whole amount of money asked for the 
University per year. If one in 6 of our people 
smoked cigars, and if each smoker would contribute 
one ten-cent cigar a week during the year the amount 
would be more than the appropriation the University 
is asking for. 


(8) If everyone in the State gave up attendance 
at every fifth “‘movie’’ picture show for one year, 
at an average of 30 cents admission, the budget for 
the University for two years would be raised in less 
than a year. 


(4) The per capita expenditure for soft drinks, 
ice cream, etc., is $3.31, which is more than four 
tumes the proposed per capita expenditure on the 
University. 


The Nation’s Luxuries 


HE population of Illinois is approximately 
one-eighteenth of that of the United States. 
According to government returns for 1920, the people 
of the United States spent for luxuries in that year 
$22,700,000,000; more than 22 times as much as 
that spent for education only two years before and 
$6,000,000,000 more than we have spent for public 
education 7n all our history. 


Hon. P.P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, 
calls attention to the fact that we blew away in the 
smoking of cigars and cigarettes in 1920, $300,000,000 
more than the total cost of all education in 1918. 
The total cost for tobacco in all its forms in 1920 
was 5 times the total of teachers’ salaries in 1918. 


For tobacco in all its various forms we spent 
last year more than we have paid for higher education 
since the founding of Harvard College in Massa- 
chusetts and William and Mary in Virginia, more 
than 200 years ago. 


The truth is, higher education is not a burden. 
Its cost is almost negligible when compared with 
other expenditures. In 1918, for higher education 
in colleges, universities, and professional and tech- 
nical schools, whether supported by public taxation 
or privately endowed, we spent $137,055,415. In 
the 50 years from 1870 to 1920, we paid for higher 
education in tax supported and privately endowed 
colleges, universities, and _ technical schools, 
$1,804,200,272. For the years preceding 1870, 150 
millions for higher education would be very liberal 
estimates. 


Expenditures for luxuries in 1920. included 
among other items: . 


Face powder, cosmetics, perfume, etc. .$750,000,000 
Furs iy aA mm SON Ab Pern Ves ts . 800,000,000 


PUORGMALITIME GARNI ak CHUM COME. Me 350,000,000 


OTT EN ge 0" 1 AR ae A 800,000,000 
CDT Seen Agee a ivoua hehe. Lim: oe 510,000,000 
ODECCOLANG BRUTE, 6s Siricies ss oe. LB 800,000,000 
{cl tng EE RASS UR cee 500,000,000 
Joy rides, pleasure resorts, and races. .3,000,000,000 
SRATEOUOSTNE TRIVIA Re Lia CHL Wie, (MRML ES ile os 50,000,000 
POEVOLCRLIIAE LAN ONO yan cise NMI chet 250,000,000 


As Illinois has one-eighteenth of the population of 
the country, a safe conclusion is that Jllinois people 
spent their share—one-eighteenth—of the above 
amounts. 


Expenses for Education Almost 


Negligible 


HESE comparisons may be tedious but they 
are instructive. These and other figures which 
might be easily determined show very clearly the 
contention that, compared with other expenditures, 
public and private, expenditures for the University 
are almost negligible. 


We think we believe in education. We talk 
much about it, and many of us have believed that 
we pay much for it; that it in fact constitutes a 
very great burden, if, indeed, it is not our chief 
burden. No doubt we do believe in education in a 
way, but we have not paid and do not pay much 
for it. 


“The people eat more expensive food, wear more 
expensive clothing and indulge in more expensive 
sports, amusements, and recreation; and if they 
want good schools they must ‘down with the cash’ 
and pay for them,’’ says the Springfield Register. 


‘“‘Commissioner Claxton of the federal bureau of 
education has recently stated that in all our country’s 
history there has been expended for education only 
$16,645,000,000, while in 1920 alone the bill for 
luxuries of all kinds was $22,700,000,000.’’ 


The figures given by Commissioner Claxton 
are astounding and are furnishing editors throughout 
this country a subject for editorial comment, the 
general tenor of which is to the effect that if correct, 
the figures he gives show something must be done 
about it. 


“A nation that can expend $22,700,000,000 in 
a single year for luxuries can afford to be far more 


liberal than America in supporting popular edu- 
cation,”’ is the view taken by the Cleveland Plain 
Dealer, which reminds another paper “that since 
we are claiming that education ‘is the cornerstone 
of democracy,’ -we cannot afford to be always 
bargain counter hunting for corner stones.’ ” 


Of each dollar of taxes levied in Illinois in 1919 
the University of Illinois got a cent and a half. 


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